Closing Statements
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
SENATOR KERRY’S CLOSING STATEMENT
After the horrifying events of September 11, 2001, all Americans were united in our support for this president. He promised us that he would bring Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda to justice. But now, more than three years, more than $200 billion, and more than a thousand American lives later, Osama Bin Laden, a man whose name the president seems to have forgotten, is still at large, a free man, inspiring attacks that have killed commuters on a subway in Spain, slaughtered vacationers at a bar in Indonesia, and murdered American soldiers and innocent civilians at checkpoints, police stations, and markets in Iraq. At a time when Al Qaeda should be on the run, Osama bin Laden’s followers are not intimidated, but emboldened, plotting even more cruel and gruesome ways to kill and terrorize Americans here at home – and around the world. They are not dwindling, but growing in number.
Mr. President, the world is not safer than it was three years ago. It is more dangerous. And you must take responsibility for the role you’ve played in this failure. You must take responsibility for leading America into a war that has created chaos and uncertainty in Iraq, robbed more than 1,000 American families of their loved ones; and diverted resources from the defeat of our greatest enemy: Osama Bin Laden.
America needs new leadership in the war on terror. We need a president who understands who our real enemies are – and how to defeat them. I know firsthand what it means to fight a war. I know the sacrifices that are being made today by our brave men and women in Baghdad, in the Sunni triangle, on the Pakistan border; and by their families here at home.
I will finish the job in Iraq and in Afghanistan. Most important, I will focus my energies on the real war on terror. I will ensure that America’s actions reduce the number of new terrorists in the world, not expand them.
We will crush terror cells where ever they are. And I pledge that, on my watch, America will capture Osama bin Laden – dead or alive.
By June Shih, who was a speechwriter for President Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in the White House.
SENATOR KERRY’S CLOSING STATEMENT
I’m John Kerry. I doubt I won the charm war here today – because a lot of the time, I look like I’ve got a stick up my butt. In Massachusetts, we call that “standing.”
I know sometimes I bloviate. I know I’m obtuse. Don’t know what it means? Look it up.
And I know sometimes I change my mind. But sometimes I don’t.
So what? I’ve been a senator for 20 years. My wife’s a zillionaire. Lots of my friends are blowhards. What do you want from me?
Do you really think I’m not going to send a clear message to the world that we’re against terrorism and against the insurgency that’s killing our soldiers in Iraq? Do you think I won’t send Special Forces to kill Al Qaeda, drop bombs on their camps, and be a hell of a lot tougher with the Saudis than Bush will ever be?
What are you, nuts?
I didn’t think the Iraq war was a good idea, not the way it was sold and the way it was fought. But at the same time, I’m glad Saddam Hussein is gone. Raise your hand if you can’t hold those two ideas in your pea brains at the same time.
You wouldn’t be glad a murderer is off the streets and at the same time angry that it tied up the whole police force for six months and cost too many good men’s lives to get him?
Yes, I’m politically ambitious. And I want to be known as the president who killed Osama bin Laden, broke the back of global terrorist networks, repaired our alliances, and strengthened the American homeland in every way he knew how. I’m not going to rest. I’m going to work at that every single goddamn hour. Yes, that’s right, I said goddamn – truth is, I don’t pray much, and when I do, I don’t really mean it. More often, I pray to a kind of abstract god of intellectual honesty. He wears glasses.
Look. I think America’s the greatest country in the world. But when we make mistakes, we need to see them and correct them.
And we have made a colossal mistake in Iraq. The scope of it wasn’t clear to everyone at the time, our intelligence really got it wrong, and a few senators with presidential aspirations were cowed by not wanting to look weak – so we all approved the use of force.
But it ought to be clear to everyone now. What more do you want to see? Another thousand dead? Another $100 billion spent? More terrorists spawned all over the globe?
Give me a chance to lead America. Do you really think I could do more damage than this clown?
By Josh Greenman, who recently served as chief speechwriter for Senator Lieberman.
PRESIDENT BUSH’S CLOSING STATEMENT
My fellow Americans: Our decisions today will shape the world our grandchildren will inherit. Four years ago, when you and I first met, America was a nation adrift, innocents abroad in a dangerous world. On a blue-sky morning in September, we were awakened to the presence of evil and summoned to greatness. We did not start this fight, but now we must finish it.
There is a battle between freedom and fundamentalism in the world today and America cannot be neutral between them. I believe that freedom will be the wave of the future, but only if America stands firm in the decisions we have made up to this day.
Our actions have kept Americans safe at home since September 11, 2001. Our actions have led 50 million of our fellow human beings around the world to live in freedom, instead of suffering the daily brutalities of life in a dictatorship. Democracy is finally gaining a foothold in a troubled part of the world.
None of this is easy – little worthwhile is in this life. There is still much work to be done – and I know all our thoughts are with our servicemen and women serving so bravely abroad – but that is why we must not waver in our commitment to justice, democracy, and individual liberty. Terrorists do not distinguish between Democrats and Republicans and so we must stand together. Our differences are small in comparison to what we share as Americans. Together we can build a better world while keeping faith with America’s best traditions.
Half a mile from where the Twin Towers once stood is the Statue of Liberty. Today, the light of her torch shines even brighter than before, offering new hope to oppressed people around the world. History will record that this generation rose to meet the challenge of our time: a peaceful nation that met evil with unwavering resolve and helped usher in a century of liberty. My fellow Americans, we are now more than ever the land of the free and the home of the brave.
By John P. Avlon, who was chief speechwriter for Mayor Giuliani.